Why a Player Who Wasn’t a College Starter Can Be a Star of This WNBA Draft Class
Laeticia Amihere did not start a single game for South Carolina this season. Of her 127 appearances in four years for the Gamecocks, she came off the bench for all but a handful of them, recording just four career starts. Yet there was no surprise when her name was called in the first round of the 2023 WNBA draft.
Why? Simple: Amihere is not your typical bench player. Her role at South Carolina was a product of both the organizational depth in the program and of her personal versatility. And when the Dream selected her with the eighth pick Monday, they landed one of the most intriguing, high-upside players available.
“I’ve never coached anybody that comes with that much determination,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said of Amihere during the NCAA tournament. “She really didn’t care—put her anywhere.”
At 6'4", Amihere has the length to be a defensive force and can work as a presence inside. But she handles like a point guard. Her most natural position is as a power forward. (That’s generally been her role in international play with Team Canada: The Ontario native played on the 2020 Olympic and ’21 FIBA AmeriCup squads.) But she played all over the floor in college, and she increasingly looked comfortable in every role on both ends of the court. That led Staley to realize her most valuable spot on a loaded Gamecocks roster could be coming off the bench. Her role changed game to game—sometimes even within the same game—depending on what the squad needed most on any given night. But she consistently made it work.
Amihere was part of a stacked draft class from South Carolina: She shared a roster with No. 1 pick Aliyah Boston, No. 10 Zia Cooke, No. 24 Brea Beal and No. 25 Victaria Saxton. All four of those players were tenured starters for the Gamecocks. Yet Amihere was picked before all but Boston—the consensus top pick and former National Player of the Year—showing that her bench role did not hurt her draft stock. In fact, it may have helped.
“Of all the players that will make that transition to the league, she’ll probably transition the best,” Staley said. “Probably not any of them besides Aliyah has a legitimate chance of starting for a franchise. … But she’ll play her natural position off the bench and will be a bang off the bench for a WNBA team without having to think, Oh, when will I get in?”
With limited roster spots in the WNBA—even top picks are not locks to make a team in their first year—that can be important. Along with all the other factors that complicate the adjustment from college to the pros, learning how to produce in a bench role can be difficult both technically and mentally. But Amihere has plenty of practice with that.
“It says a lot about her character,” Beal said during the tournament. “It says a lot about her trust.”
This was not what Amihere originally expected for her time at South Carolina. But under Staley’s guidance, she grew into the role and learned to take ownership of it.
“I think Coach Staley saw more in me than I saw in myself,” Amihere said during the tournament. “She just saw my versatility. She saw an opportunity for me to grow in other areas.”
Ask a college teammate for her biggest strength, and you’ll hear an answer so wide-ranging, it’s hard to believe it describes a single player. (Like from Gamecocks senior Olivia Thompson: “Just how dominant she is, and on the defensive end, too. Also much of a force she is in the post. Her range is great. She’s a passer. She has great vision.”) This could make Amihere somewhat tricky to evaluate as a prospect—both because her role shifted so frequently and because her statistics naturally do not compare with those of a college starter. But adjust for minutes played to get a better sample of her skills: She was in the 80th percentile or above this year for points, assists, steals, blocks, offensive boards and free throws made per 40 minutes. That production doesn’t scale up minute by minute, of course, but it shows the versatility. And it suggests that however the Dream want to develop her, there’s a foundation to build on.
“I often just, you know, wondered what she would have been like as a starter, as a four-year starter,” Staley said. “And I don’t like that she hasn’t started in her career. But she never gave us any issues with it. She all trusted that this was the best decision for her and the team.”
Amihere will report to camp for a Dream squad whose rebuild has looked promising so far. Under new coach Tanisha Wright last season, Atlanta had its best year since 2018, led by young talent like Aari McDonald and Rookie of the Year Rhyne Howard. That group can now be complemented by No. 6 pick Haley Jones from Stanford and No. 15 Leigha Brown from Michigan—and Amihere, who stands to make an impact, no matter her role.